Taipei-Hu Yung-chi (???), the first woman to be appointed as station master in the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA's) biggest hub, said her main goal is to offer more personalized and professional service to passengers.
Hu, who took up the post at Taipei Main Station on Feb. 7, told CNA she hopes her staff will serve with patience and efficiency.
No one should be deemed a "difficult passenger," Hu said, adding that if people's requests cannot be met, they have a right to to be told what is being done to help them.
Furthermore, if the station crew is asked the same question by 100 passengers, they should answer the first and last passenger with the same level of patience, she said in an exclusive interview with CNA.
In particular, greater attention should be given to elderly passengers, said Hu, a 43-year-old mother of two, who is from the southern county of Pingtung.
Hu said she plans to apply the same principles in her role as head of the 150 crew members at Taipei Main Station, facilitating staff discussions about providing more detail-oriented services.
The first female station master at Taipei Main Station in TRA's history, Hu has worked her way up the ranks over the past 13 years, serving as station staff, train conductor, section chief at Taipei Main Station, and secretary to TRA's director-general.
Prior to her employment with TRA in 2009, Hsu said, she had never been to Taipei Main Station and had taken only one trip on a local TRA train.
After graduating from then-National Chiao Tung University, with a degrees in finance, she went to work in China for three years and then passed a state exam to get her first job at TRA.
While at TRA, Hsu was also studying part-time at the same university, and she earned a master's degree in Transportation and Logistics Management.
In her new position as station master at the TRA's biggest and busiest hub, she has had to face the long-standing criticisms of TRA's safety record and operation style.
Hu thinks that better planning and more efficient implementation of goals are needed to address some of the problems.
"TRA is a century-old agency," she said. "It is difficult for the elderly to do a 100-meter dash, but they can reach the finish line step-by-step."
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel